Articles Hub

Posts Tagged ‘Story’

The Story of the Mazda Tribute

The Ford Motor Company is responsible and the culprit behind the success and prestige that the Mazda Tribute has at present. Despite the fact that 2006 would be the last year that this vehicle would be manufactured, sales of this vehicle has not been greatly affected. The life story of the Mazda Tribute had started back in the year 2001. It had taken the spot and niche that the Mazda Navajo left vacant when its production was entirely halted. However, this time around, when the Mazda Tribute is not manufactured anymore, its spot would be taken by the upcoming Mazda CX 7.

The Mazda Tribute has been built and mounted on the FF CD2 platform of the Ford Motor Company. This same platform has been used by the previous front wheel drive Mazda 626 vehicle. It has been designed as a compact crossover sport utility vehicle and this vehicle holds four doors. It is related to the Ford Escape and the Mercury Mariner. It has been said that its competition in the automobile market include the Jeep Liberty, the Toyota RAV4, the Hyundai Tucson, and the Honda CR-V.

During its introduction, the Mazda Tribute was unveiled to have been equipped with either a 2.0 L Mazda engine with four cylinders or the Ford Duratec 3.0 L V6 engine. However, if you do travel to Europe, you would find out that the Mazda Tribute is currently being sold as the Ford Maverick. And this vehicle was equipped with the 2.0 L Ford Zetec engine and had a manual transmission system as part of it. However, another choice for the engine was a 3.0 L Duratec engine with an automatic transmission system.

Mazda claims that the Mazda Tribute is the right vehicle not only for on road driving but also for off road traversing. Whatever the kind of terrain that there could be, the Mazda Tribute could definitely handle them. The engine is guaranteed to be lightweight yet provides enough and good power. Aside from power, the Mazda Tribute actually has been made available with various choices. As per the interior, interested parties could choose between cloth and leather material for the seats and the color choices for these materials are Dark Flint and Medium Pebble. The exterior color choices, on the other hand, comprise of Blazing Copper, Stormfront Gray, Classic White, Dark Titanium, Mystic Black, Pebble Ash, Platinum, Redfire, and Lapis Blue.

Interested parties, Mazda aficionados, and Mazda owners can come across super durable replacement parts on Mazda Parts and Mazda Auto Parts. Mazda Parts and Mazda Auto Parts is one of the largest dealers of Mazda parts and accessories including Mazda Tribute parts. These parts have been crafted from quality materials so as to guarantee durability and to assist in maintaining the performance and delivery of Mazda vehicles. These Mazda parts from Mazda Parts and Mazda Auto Parts are also guaranteed to fit. The online collection of Mazda parts and accessories include in its list a/c condensers, alternators, radiator fans, spoilers, starters, trunk lids, and wheels among many others.

A story of Sydney’s Steam Trams

Once upon a time there were no automobiles; no buses, no trucks, no motor bikes. In those distant days the horse and horse traffic reigned supreme in the streets of Sydney. If you wanted to travel, the chances were you rode a horse, or went by horse omnibus or cab, walked or possibly by bicycle.  Unless you were lucky enough to live close to one of the few train routes, people were largely forced to live close to their work places in what were often expensive and overpriced areas. A weekend trip away would require meticulous planning.

All this changed when the steam trains came to Sydney.

Within the space of a few years, the city became the steam tram capital of the world. Only Paris could boast a system to match Sydney’s. Steam trams went on to dominate the street6s of Sydney for the next 20 years until their gradual decline from the end of the last century.

Many people say that the ‘Americanisation’ of Sydney began with the introduction of the trams when a 24 year old Philadelphia boy introduced the first imports into Lane Cove.  The trams were to become a source of a great deal of Sydney’s cultural identity in the early days, the phrase that went onto become a national lexicon – ‘shooting through like a Bondi tram’ was often used to reference anything that was fast paced at the time.  Many also believe the trams were responsible for the famous ‘wolf whistle’ when the drivers sounded their horns at the sighting of an attractive girl.

Citizens were alternately captivated and terrorised by the steam trams. They were known as the ‘manglers’ and ‘Juggernauts’. Cartoonists frequently depicted them with an angel of death at the throttle, or with the visage of a flesh eating demon! Pedestrians and horse traffic were their victims; newspapers seemed to relish gory descriptions of the latest set of accidents.

The first batch of steam trains reached Sydney from the famous Baldwin locomotive works in 1879. The government had purchased them as an urgent but temporary measure to carry patrons from the inconvenient Redfern railways terminus to the International Exhibition in the Botanic Gardens.

The Exhibition came and went but the Sydney Trams stayed.  Citizens had become so enamoured by this new, swift and convenient mode of street transportation that they wouldn’t let go of them.

So the lines reached out to Bondi, Balmain and Botany, to Leichardt and La Perouse, to Abbotsford, Coogee, Marrickville, Newtown and Woolahra. At the peak, more than 100 steam ‘motors’, (as the engines were know) were in service, weaving around them a unique folklore of friendly drivers, larrikin conductors, accusations of scandals, frauds and misbehaviour, and the machinations of sly politicians and land-shark developers of a wild past country.

Down narrow streets came the snorting little monsters with whistles shrilling, alarm bells ringing, steam hissing from beneath the wheels, stampeding the horses and scattering the pedestrians. Behind them they tugged, double deck, ungainly open coaches, where women on the upper level could call the conductor to supply them with a modesty lace to tie down their skirts.

The steam trams contributed a little known episode to the history of early Sydney however through the efforts of Blue Horizon Printing, we are seeing some of this history refreshed. Blue Horizon recently launched a unique range of tram scroll destination art. These bus and tram banners are replicas of the old 1950′s and 1960′s bus signs that used to adorn most Bus and Tram stations across Australia.

Find More Automobile Horn Articles

A Marriage License is not Always Followed by a Sad Love Story

I usually wonder what happens when a marriage license in form of a marriage certificate is issued to a loving couple. Their love story takes a dramatic turn and becomes sorrowful. When people are dating, there is a lot of endless love and their long term relationship is hoped to be the best. They have a lot of trust in their feelings and that is why they decide to tie the knot. After the honey moon is over, a lot of bad things happen. Couples turn against each other as they question each others true colors. When people are dating, a lot is hidden to win the other party. Enough self control is practiced to avoid portraying a bad image about themselves. Relationship advice is important for people who are courting. Hiding your true characters acts as a serious time bomb.

Nothing remains in the dark for a lifetime. Many people pretend to be close to perfect when dating. They are princes and princesses until after they are honored with marriage license. Things move from best to worst. If enough relationship advice is not given to these newly married couples, they call it quits immediately after honeymoon or even before it ends. Marriage is about tolerance and it requires a lot of understanding and patience. An ideal love story features relationship problems. Do not shy away from small problems. You should be bold enough to overcome problems for a lasting marriage relationship. May be you have never seen your spouse angry and so when it happens you flee. If you show him his anger shakes you, you will be a victim of failed marriage.

To be on the safe side, establish problem solving skills early enough to avoid living in an emotional torture. It feels good to narrate to your grand children about your successful love story. Most young people have a negative attitude towards marriage due to the high level of divorces in our society today. There is no any good marriage to emulate since what they have grown up seeing was a real hell. It is always good to seek relationship advice before overreacting to a relationship problem. It is abnormal for two people living together to live without colliding. Disagreements do not mean hate. You should look at it as a difference in opinion. A marriage license should make you feel emotionally settled. It legalizes your love affair.

Many are the times a marriage license is perceived as bad news. It is a wrong perception because if you watch carefully, most of the married people are so stable both financially and emotionally. They are successful because they are settled. A love story of a victim of a failed marriage will always discourage you from saying i do. My relationship advice is that, you should be wise enough not to look at the society with a lot sceptics. Do not believe everything you read, otherwise do not read. The world has never been a perfect place. The society consists of failed and successful things so it is up to an individual to choose either to be a failure or a success.

Find More Advice On Love Articles

ESPN’s Lost Credibility Over Pulling LeBron James Story
ESPN says a reporter that was unethical will not be punished.
Read more on Forbes Blogs

Heat Visit Celtics In NBA Opener, LA On Christmas
The NBA will open its season with a battle of Big Threes, then offer up the new-look Miami Heat against Kobe Bryant and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day. The Heat will debut their All-Star trio of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh at Boston on Oct. 26 against the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics, who are led by their veteran group of Paul Pierce …
Read more on WBZ Boston

Shareholding story a `beat up’ says minister
Trade Minister Tim Groser says he is going to ignore the “beat up” over shares he holds in a Uruguayan company and get on with his job.
Read more on NZPA via Yahoo!Xtra News

Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James


Image by Keith Allison

What happens in Vegas… ESPN pulls unflattering LeBron James story
UPDATE: 3:48 pm: CNBC’s Darren Rovell got this comment from ESPN:ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz tells us why the LeBron Vegas story was pulled: “The story should have never been published. The draft was inadvertently put on the server before going…
Read more on NBC Sports: ProBasketballTalk

Fan ejected from Indians game for wearing LeBron jersey
Fans should be allowed to wear any shirt or jersey to a game that they please, as long as it’s not offensive. However, any fan wearing the jersey of an opposing team is asking for trouble. Then there’s the guy in Cleveland Wednesday night who took an opposing jersey to a whole new level. This brainiac showed up to an Indians game wearing a Miami Heat LeBron James jersey. Let’s just say that …
Read more on St. Petersburg Times

Record-setting ‘Toy Story’ No. 1 again overseas
Returning to the foreign theatrical circuit’s No. 1 boxoffice perch after three stanzas of also-ran status, “Toy Story 3″ drew .8 million on the weekend.
Read more on The Hollywood Reporter

“Toy Story 3,” “Inception” lead foreign box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – After three weeks at No. 2, “Toy Story 3″ reclaimed the top spot at the foreign box office during the weekend, drawing million.
Read more on Reuters

The Amazing Success Story of Google

I have presented below the amazing success story of google. This article focuses more on straight points rather than lengthy explanations.

Let us see see some quick facts & figures:
Google was named after the number “Googol” which means one followed by a hundred zeros. It is the top search engine with over fifty percent market share. It is one of the top three most visited websites. Over four thousand million searches are conducted every month on it. It has localized websites for over 150 countries. There are over 117 language options to view your google page in. This search engine is supported by a backend of over 80,000 to 100,000 servers.

The Story Of Google, Inc:
The founders of google are Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It was started in 1996-97 in Stanford University when both of them were students there. They received startup venture capital of 0,000 in 1998 from Andy Bechtolsheim. In 1999, they received Million in venture capital. This further bolstered their growth. The growth in terms of employees, search queries & revenues was always increasing. The primary focus has always been on search.

Some Major Milestones of Google:
Over 100 Million searches were being conducted daily by 2000. They started their advertising programs adwords and adsense in 2002-03. They went public in 2004 with an initial public offering in USA and raised .67 Billion. They formed major partnerships with NASA & AOL in 2005. The google stock was added to S&P 500 index in 2006. The company employment crossed 10,000 employees in 2007. The graph of google has only been going up. Let us know more about the amazing story of this company.

The current scene:
Google, Inc. is listed on NASDAQ with symbol GOOG. The current share price is 4 as on September 6, 2008. Also on this date the market cap is around 0 Billion. Eric Schmidt is the CEO & Chairman. Larry Page remains co-founder and president, products and Sergey Brin remains co-founder and president, technology. The stock has been a front runner among tech stocks. But they have never given a dividend to shareholders.

Major Acquisitions:
- Blogger from Pyra Labs in 2003.
- Picasa in 2004 for Photo management.
- Keyhole in 2004 – Google Earth.
- YouTube in 2006 – Online Videos.
- FeedBurner in 2006 – RSS feeds.
- DoubleClick in 2007 – Online Advertising.

Major Products & Services of google:
- Search – text, images, videos, news, books, blogs, patents, code, etc.
- Google Maps & Google Earth.
- Latest news & financial information.
- Google Docs.
- Google Labs.
- Calendar, Groups, Google Scholar, etc.

Other Major Websites run by google:
- YouTube.com – Online Video Sharing.
- Orkut.com – Social Networking.
- Picasa.com – Photo Sharing & Management.
- Gmail.com – Email.
- Blogger.com – Blogging.

Some Google Trivia:
It was the number one employer according to Fortune magazine in 2007. Google is now a verb in dictionaries. Google.org has committed 1% of its revenues to the betterment of society. They have also started scanning of library books to make data more accessible.

The future for google:
They are continuously innovating and launching new products. There has been a constant increase in earnings. The growth of Internet usage boosts revenues further. They are focusing on formation of new partnerships. They have already completed acquisitions of new companies (over 50).

In Conclusion:
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. They have stuck to it till now and hope to do so in future.

Find More Monthly Dividend Stocks Articles

Personal Trainer Tells a Singapore Fat Loss Story

After helping clients with personal training in Singapore for more than 10 years, I often have to tell stories to give them an idea of what to expect from their program. Here is one such story about fat loss.

I recently had a client called Jack (Not his real name) who wanted to start getting in shape after many years of unhealthy eating.

Part of the exercise program was to help him get stronger. The building of strength is important because it allows you to use more energy during training and this is good for burning fat.

Also, getting strong prevents muscles from breaking down as you go on a diet where calories may be low. This means that you don’t get the “rebound effect” where you quickly gain weight back after a diet due to excessive loss of lean muscle.

For the strength portion of his workouts Jack did exercises with heavy weights for his current fitness level. The exercises we used are big movements like deadlifts, squats, and chin-ups. At the end of 5 weeks for example he could lift 120kg five times in the dead lift which is a respectable amount of strength.

The next portion of the workouts was the fat burning portion of the workouts. We used simpler exercises put together in a circuit like fashion. The aim of this portion was to boost Jack’s metabolism both during AND after the workouts.

The workouts are hard work and so Jack’s metabolism is ramped up for up to 30 or more hours after the training session while his body is recovering from the workout. The result is that he burns many calories because even just 1 hour of this kind of training can result in 30 hours or more of increased calorie burning. Exercises used here include lunges, jump squats, pushups and burpees.

We never used cardio in the traditional sense such as jogging or cycling because it is boring, and it often leads to overuse injuries as well as muscle loss.

For nutrition, the first task was to help Jack’s body start to become efficient at burning fats. We did this by asking him to eat more healthy fats such as nuts and fish oils. Eating more fat teaches your body to burn fat efficiently. Meanwhile, at Jack’s level of body fat he is not suited to consume carbohydrates of any kind except green, leafy vegetables. So his nutrition plan was high in protein, high in healthy fats, very high in vegetables, and very low in processed foods and unhealthy fats.

After 2 weeks, Jack’s body became adapted to using fat as a fuel. Then we decreased the amount of food he ate, and his body started using his body fat stores for fuel. That is why he only lost 1kg in the first 2 weeks, but 4kg in the final 2.

At no point did Jack need to feel hungry because when his body started to absorb high quality foods, his body automatically tells him that is has enough food. This is different from when he eats foods with low nutrient content like noodles. The body does not know when to stop because pasta, sugar and other bad foods have close to zero nutrients so the body is still “hungry” even though he may have eaten alot.

The Final Stats? Start Weight – 115.5kg

End Weight – 110.5kg

Lean Mass Start – 76kg

Lean Mass End – 78g

5kg of weight lost, 2kg of muscle gained.

That means actual fat loss is 7kg

THIS is the key stat:)

Fat percentage drop from 33% to 28.8%

Measurements: Arms 45cm both start and finish

Waist 113cm drop to 107cm (2.5 inches)

Below are the fat measurements at the start

Chin: 14.2 mm

Cheek: 14.6 mm

Pectoris: 41 mm

Triceps: 31 mm

Subscap: 33 mm

Mid-axillary: 40.2 mm

Supra-iliac: 62 mm

Umbilicus: 64 mm

Knee: 18.8 mm

Calf: 29 mm

Quadricep: 37.2 mm

Hamstring: 56 mm

Below are the measurements At the end.

Chin: 11.6 mm

Cheek: 12.8 mm

Pectoris: 33 mm

Triceps: 26.9 mm

Subscap: 28 mm

Mid-axillary: 32 mm

Supra-iliac: 46 mm

Umbilicus: 49.8 mm

Knee: 14.6 mm

Calf: 18.8 mm

Quadricep: 27 mm

Hamstring: 48 mm

Big drops in Supra iliac (love handles), Sub scapular (upper back) and Umbilicus (abdominal) – these are key indicators for health issues. So Jack’s health improved alot.

I know that these are typical results with clients who under go personal training and who do what we ask them to do. Jack trained in the gym 3x per week and did 1-2 other days of recreational activity like basketball or leisure walks.

More Fat Loss Articles